Overjoyed. That was the primary emotion I felt when my good friend Caroline asked me to be a bridesmaid around four months ago.
Having been a bridesmaid once in the past, I thought this would be a piece of cake, especially seeing as I was one of seven bridesmaids. Sadly, my joy quickly turned to utter despair.
At first, I thought Carol was just being a little overzealous when the group emails asking for input on everything from bridesmaid dress colours, hairstyles, makeup looks, bridal dresses, buttonholes for the groomsmen (something I had to Google) and table decorations came flooding through, quickly taking up a large chunk of my day.
Bridal makeup ideas. Post continues after gallery…
Beautiful wedding eye makeup ideas
During one particularly busy Friday at work – I’m a high school English teacher, so there’s not a lot of down time – I checked my email during a short break between morning classes.
“Hey Hayley, How’s it going? I need some cake-maker suggestions by COB today please, Jase and I really want to get a wriggle on with this and need the contact details, price brackets, flavours and an idea of how prestigious the vendor is – in a table would be great. Excel is probably best please. Thanks!”
I had to read the email about three times to gauge what she was asking me. After the third disbelieving scan, I felt my blood start boiling.
Was she serious?!
“I have a full time job, for crying out loud, how am I meant to get all this info by then?” I thought, panicked.
Listen: Mia Freedman shares the wedding regret that turned into one of the biggest of her entire life. Post continues after audio.
Surely it’d be OK if I got the information to her over the weekend? I wanted to be a good bridesmaid but what was she going to do with wedding cake information on a Friday evening? I decided to hedge my bets and replied with my plan to have the info to her the following day, apologising and saying that it was a busy day. Of course she’d be okay with that, wouldn’t she?
After no reply from the bride-to-be, I carried on with my day. On Saturday morning I cancelled my breakfast plans, instead researching Tasmanian wedding cake-makers (she’d decided to have a picturesque destination wedding) that might be suitable. I sent it through to her and had a reply almost immediately.
“Thanks for this, would’ve been really helpful to have it yesterday when specified but I appreciate it.”
